This instructable will detail the dog house I built this summer. This dog house was built for two itty bitty fragile dogs as a safe haven from the bigger dogs and features: -an air conditioner-electrical outlet-exterior conduit electrical-large "people" access doors-small "doggy" window and door-treated lumber stilt foundation (no termites allowed)

"Rough" (some say lazy I say rough and efficient) construction methods were utilized, but dog house is durable and easily supports myself (190lbs).

Step 1: Designing and costing

The first step was designing the dog house. The dogs using this house are very small so the major factor in this design was my size. This dog house is about as small as possible while allowing space for me to get inside and perform maintenance (filter changing, clean up, dog beds, etc.) or hide. These design sketches have pretty minimal dimensioning and consist of random presentation views, so they should be easy to tweek. If planning on going much larger, stilt (column) supports should be added in grid-like layout at least every 6ft in length and width directions.

Also included in this step was my cost analysis. This dog house cost about $300 (including the air conditioner) and 3 gray hairs.

<p>My wife insists on dog houses, dog beds, pads, etc for our big Husky mix. All he does is pull out the bed pad, shred it, rip the guts out, then go lay on his back, spread-eagle in the middle of the yard in the grass. If the weather gets too hot, he digs a new crater under the deck an lays in the cool dirt. Go figure.</p>

We build a dog house for my Doberman Ely. We had a heat lamp, a foam pad and a few blankets in there for him. At first he didn't like it so he would drag the stuff out side and sleep on it. The reason we had him in a dog house is he couldn't get up the stairs anymore. 13 is pretty old for a doberman. Everybody but people in uniform he liked for some reason..<br />

<p>Brandon, I realize your comment is 5 years old but here I am so....</p><p>When I was growing up, pets were disposable. You took decent care of them, took them for rabies shots and such. But if one got seriously sick or injured you humanely put it down. There was no money for big vet bills.</p><p>I'm getting along in years now and have two dogs. I spend lots of time with them and can tell you these dogs would not hesitate to sacrifice themselves to protect each other or my family. In fact, the dogs are family too. For such loyalty and companionship, I'm grateful. My biggest dog (and he is very big) will almost certainly develop joint problems before old age comes and when it does I'll gladly spend whatever I must, if I have it, to help my dog. And if he's suffering I'll see that he's put down quietly.</p><p>I know you think comments you make seem clever or maybe it's to get a reaction from someone. It's hard to say. Maybe if your father paid more attention to you growing up or your mom hugged you a little less, you'd be less needy for attention now and would spend less time playing Mine Craft. I guess.</p>

We used a .30-06 for a blind cat. But he died while i was in Vegas of natural causes and my dad called me about him. He died at 3:21am on a wednesday on the 14th of august. Softest floppy ears you would ever feel.<br />

dam that would vaporizes it<br />

Air conditioning??? Come on, it's a dog.&nbsp; The passive cooling effects of a shaded space is really enough.&nbsp; If not, then a quick shave would settle the difference. <br />

GO HOME, CAT LOVER!

<p>My dog loves cats...........yep.</p>

<p>No no no! Please NEVER shave a dog, not any dog. People mean well but that dog is coated that way for a reason. If you have a double coated dog then nature, God, evolution, whatever you trust in, engineered that animal as a complete working package that will regulate it's own body temperature the best it can. Give it shade, plenty of water, circulating air, even a kiddie pool ($5 at Walmart) which are all natural ways the dog's body will take care of cooling down. The dogs coat is part of a system used to regulate body temperature change. Think of desert nomads or even U.S. soldiers in arid countries. They don't strip down to cool down. Same with a dog.</p>

<p>Where I live dogs need air conditioning in the summer.... It gets to be 115 degrees outside, last year temperatures where 120. Dogs die of heat stroke a lot where I live.</p>

NEVER shave a dog. Their coats protect them from the heat, naturally. Make sure they are brushed to get the loose hair, but never shave them.

some people love their dogs....<br />

<p>Thank you for the instructions. Great build and idea. We are planning to build a dog house for our dogs we are planning to place air conditioner with heat in ours too. Our girls are in the house when we are home and currently in crates when we are gone, however, if we are gone for a long period of time we want them to be comfortable and safe when outside, so we understand the importance of having a source of cooling and heat when they use their house outside. </p>

<p>Totes making this for my chihuahua! And maybe one for my older dog too. They'll probably need it in the summer here, lol. </p>

<p>Nice, and I don't think I've ever met a dog who cared how tarted up their shelter is. Perhaps you could put some insulation between the studs &amp; joists, and save a bit of electricity? It would be interesting to build a swamp (evaporative) cooler for a dog house, to use even less energy. </p>

Good for you doggy you've just got an <a href="http://www.aircondirect.com.au/">air conditioning</a> system on your house lol

&nbsp;A good idea would be to have a detachable roof so you can maintain it easier.&nbsp;<br /> It could slide in some how!

my dogs(5) have a 3x3x6 &quot;dog house&quot; with ac also, which BTW is keep in the garage, with their 4x8x1 foot deep hay bed, in the winter we use brood lamps for heat, much safer than heat lamps they can get very very hot, to the point of igniting wood! be carefull. we try to keep teh lamps above there heads when standing, so&nbsp; they cant burn themselves, gotta take care of teh pups! great job!

I&nbsp;also had a heat lamp setup for my dogs.... one of them knocked it down, it burned the doghouse, my yard (as well as three other neighbors yards) broke the kitchen windows (it was on the back porch next to the house) and caused minor smoke damage in my home.<br /> <br /> Be careful of heat lamps!!!!!<br />

<br /> Just laying the PVC on the ground...&nbsp;&nbsp; tsk tsk<br /> <br /> Go to home depot, get a romex connector and a gfci.<br /> Switch the plug for the gfi, and hard wire the ac to the 'load' side.<br /> but hide the cord in some pvc or flex tube... Its your dog.<br /> <br /> His safety should come before... AIR&nbsp;CONDITIONING! lol<br />

<p>Thanks for your interest.&nbsp; It would be ideal&nbsp;to switch regular grounded outlet to gfi, but I&nbsp;am lazy.&nbsp; I considered hard wiring a/c, but I&nbsp;like to unplug things to save energy too much.&nbsp; Also I&nbsp;hate romex connectors.&nbsp; The little dogs that stay here were both adopted from neglectful situations, so they have bad teeth and I&nbsp;assume they will not chew through wires... (fingers crossed).&nbsp;</p>

Nothing really to do with this type of dog house but just a note.&nbsp; I did not think of this before I started working with animals but you should NOT put blankets, foam, padding, etc., in an outdoor dog house during the winter.&nbsp; Some cities, it is actually illegal to use things such as this in outdoor dog beds.&nbsp; What happens is that&nbsp;they get wet, refreeze, then all the dog has is a frozen bed to lay on which means frostbite.&nbsp; Please pass this on to any friends/family who use these items. &nbsp;Straw and straw bales is best for insulation and a warm bed.&nbsp; Also, thank you to everyone who adopts and saves an animal from a shelter!

I did something similar a few years ago.&nbsp; I used 1.5&quot; Styrofoam sheets for insulation.&nbsp; I also used a thermoelectric A/C unit to keep power costs down.&nbsp; That unit had no internal thermostat so I had to improvise using a Honeywell T775 thermocouple.&nbsp; <br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bkirk1969/sets/72157601506871790/">www.flickr.com/photos/bkirk1969/sets/72157601506871790/</a><br />

a chilly 79 degrees? that seems quite warm<br />

You bet it is.&nbsp; HOWEVER, when it's 110 outside, 79 is is very refreshing,&nbsp;especially&nbsp;under the&nbsp;internal fan&nbsp;- that's a 31 degree difference.&nbsp; The pug knows, he spends all day in there.&nbsp; We only keep our home AC at 76 during days in the summer but that's mainly a power thing.&nbsp; If the thermoelectric AC could do more than 30 degrees differnetial I'd set it lower, but a 30 degree differential keeps the AC running all day.&nbsp; I&nbsp;may try to upgrade the peltier element this spring to a higher wattage unit to get a little more out of it.

If you are running AC in it, wouldn't you want to insulate it as well?<br />

Insulation would be a great addition to this!&nbsp; The over-sized air unit hasn't been running alot, but I&nbsp;probably will add some foam. &nbsp;<br />

Cool Dog (sic) wheres the Dogs flatscreen TV ?<br /> <br />

&nbsp;THIS IS COOL!!!!<br /> IS THAT AN IPHONE I SEE IN THE PIC FOR STEP 9!?!!?!?!?<br /> ONCE AGAIN, GREAT STUFF!!!

Thanks!&nbsp; That is my iphone (good eye by the way).&nbsp; I&nbsp;actually used the level app!&nbsp; <br />